Thoughts from a Part-Core Gamer

Summer Nights

I run into a problem every summer with my game play habits. For whatever reason, I just get fed up with my games during the summer, often reaching a pinnacle about a month in where I’ve been suitably irritated by every game on my rotation to just go read four or five novels back to back until I get tired of that, too.

The problem, of course, has to do with the density of my play time. Rather than the flighty summer flings described by the titular song (from Grease, for those young ‘uns out there), the volume of time I have during the summer makes my game play seem more deep and serious. As a result, the greater emphasis on gameplay means that the small flaws I otherwise ignore when I have real problems take a front seat to my attention. When they happen several in a row, I get a bit fed up.

Of course, it would be easy to just learn not to take the games so “seriously,” but during the summer, I don’t really have much else to take seriously, so it becomes a matter of relativity. With nothing else to put games in the context in where they belong, no matter how hard I try to intellectually tell myself not to worry about the computer Civ showing up with 8 units about 30 turns into the game (which seems mathematically impossible), it gets noted. When I then go play X-Com and I lose a colonel (the highest level a unit can achieve) on alien turn 1 due to a unbelievable amount of misses from my units on set of 3 strong melee aliens that spawn almost on top of me on the first turn, it, too, gets noted, on top of the Civ nonsense.

These little things grow, as does my dissatisfaction. In the end, I often seek out new games (I signed up for the Beta of Card Hunter at Tobold’s suggestion), some of which may last, but many of which don’t, since they’re games I only played to avoid the games I really liked. Eventually, the cycle comes full circle and I load back up the games that frustrated me and give them another shot, often enjoying them and questioning why I stopped them in the first place. Such are the cycles of my life.

Is there a remedy for this? A way to break the cycle? If there is, it eludes me. For now, I’ll keep groaning about unfair deaths in X-Com, bad beats in LoL, and impossible computer plays in Civ 5. Tomorrow, maybe I’ll be back to Skyrim or forward to Card Hunter. Only time will tell.